231 



No. 87 



Health, Education, Recreation 



RECREATION THE BASIS OF ASSOCI- 
ATION BETWEEN PARENTS 
AND TEACHERS 



CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY 

DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 



RS 
•F- 



An Address Delivered February io, 191 i 

Before the Principals' Association of Graded Schools, 

OF Washington, D. C. 



Department of Child Hygiene of the 
Russell Sage Foundation 

400 Metropolitan Tower, New York City 



ionograph 



SEP ii^i. 



V 






Recreation the Basis of Association between 
Parents and Teachers 



One winter's evening several years ago, a tough walked into 
a New York evening recreation center. He had gone there with 
the avowed purpose of "cleaning out" the whole place, but on 
observing the rather determined and capable athletes who were 
present he gave up his idea, and stood watching some boys do 
stunts on the horizontal bar. Presently the gymnast in charge 
noticed him and asked him to take his turn with the others. To 
his astonishment he found that he could not perform feats which 
the others did with ease. The instructor gave him some points 
and he improved. The next night he came again, and'the follow- 
ing one also, each time making straight for the little group 
around the horizontal bar. He soon became more proficient 
than any of the other boys. 

In the meantime the principal of the center had learned that 
the new youth was the leader of a notorious gang which had long 
terrorized the neighborhood. Seeking him out one night the 
principal suggested that he might care to organize a basket ball 
team among his fellows and take part in some of the match 
games which were being held in the center. The boy brought in 
his gang. In order to get up a team they had to hold meetings, 
and the principal gave them the use of one of the class rooms. 
To transact business it was not possible for all the boys to talk 
at the same time. There had to be some order in the speaking. 
The club-director gave them some assistance and presently 
the leader of the gang found himself enforcing the ordinary 
parliamentary rules that obtain in public meetings. 

Having formed a basket ball team that played regular match 
games the boys fell into the habit of meeting at the center. 
The team was a nucleus, which, under the stimulus of a meeting 
room, all their own, grew into a club. Besides holding match 
games the new organization began to hold debates. In order 

3 



to argue the members were obliged to obtain more information, 
and searching for it led them into the library and into a perma- 
nent interest in books. Thus, in time, the gang which had been 
a terror to the neighborhood became an active athletic and liter- 
ary society, and the one-time tough was its president. In such 
ways as this the evening recreation centers of New York City 
are accomplishing their work. Thus they are demonstrating 
what the late Miss Evangeline Whitney, their organizer and 
long-time director, believed to be one of their main purposes; 
they are proving that for the boy in the city street the acquisition 
of "the athlete's code of honor is a triumph over lawlessness, the 
beginning of a citizen's conception of duty." 

I have related this incident because of its significance as a 
method of dealing with delinquent youths. Let us see now 
just what means were used. In the first place the boy was 
attracted and caught by satisfying one of his strongest interests — 
admiration for physical prowess. The tough was proud of his 
own strength and his respect was given immediately to the 
gymnast who could surpass him. Instead of trying to kill this 
instinct for feats of the bodj^ the recreation center exalted it and 
provided more abundant means for its expression than were 
furnished by the saloon or the street corner. 

Again, the tough was proud of his leadership. His subjects 
were only a gang of street boys, but ruling them satisfied his 
natural desire for power. Instead of throttling this ability the 
recreation center gave it, in the basket ball team and the debating 
society, a wider and more dignified range of opportunity. In a 
word, the center takes the keen, impetuous interests and powers 
of lusty boyhood, and, in place of attempting to starve them out 
of existence, it feeds them, develops them, and guides them into 
wholesome and useful forms of activity. It is the psychological 
method of leading lawless youths into the paths of upright 
citizenship. 

And yet what is the method that is still much used by people 
in dealing with errant boyhood? Is it not that of reprimand, 
humiliation, and repression? Whenever we can buttonhole the 
reckless youngster we point out his misdeeds, dilate upon the 
terrors of the future towards which he is surely moving and 
offer him the choice of an immediate right-about-face or the 
penalty of lifelong misery. He is doing wrong; he must be 
made to do right and do it instanter. The logical way, obviously. 



but does it seem as efficient, as promising of results, as the way of 
the recreation center? 

Robert Louis Stevenson gave his view of these two methods in 
his well-known essay "A Christmas Sermon." Says he: "There 
is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make 
their neighbors good. One person I have to make good — myself. 
But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by 
saying that I have to make him happy — if I may." There you 
have it in a nutshell. To try to make people good is the logical 
way, but to make people happy is the psychological way, the 
most effective way, of helping them to grow good. 

How now does this theory of the best method to use in attempt- 
ing to mold the lives of others apply to the business of planning 
an organization of parents and teachers? In every combination 
there must be some reason for the union, some mutual advantages 
to be gained by coming together. The association must satisfy 
certain interests of both groups, and the stronger these interests 
are the more robust will the association be. What, then, is the 
most vital set of interests which parents and teachers have in 
common? What is the strongest tie that exists between the 
home and the school? 

If that question were put to a speaker who happened to be 
near a blackboard he would, in nine cases out of ten, seize some 
crayon, rush to the board and draw a diagram like this: 




After wiping the dust from his fingers he would beam upon 
the audience and say: "There you have it! It is perfectly 
simple. A blood relation exists between the parent and his child. 
Things related to the same thing are related to each. Ergo, 
home and school are bound together, and it's the child that binds 



them both. It's the child which must be the basis of any asso- 
ciation between parents and teachers." 

Very well, suppose we have an association based on this prin- 
ciple, — let us see how it works. You, a member and a conscientious 
father, have just come home from a hard day at the office. After 
dinner your son hands you an announcement from the principal 
of his school. At eight o'clock to-night Professor So-and-So, of 
such a university, will address the association upon "The 
Spiritual Atmosphere in the Home and Kindergarten." All 
parents, teachers and their friends are cordially invited to attend. 
The discourse is to be about the two places which have the 
greatest influence upon your child's character; it is to reveal the 
highest aspect of the forces which are molding your child's life, 
the offspring of your flesh and bone. 

Just watch yourself as you read that announcement. Observe 
how it draws ! Do you feel it pulling you up from the table, 
pushing you into your overcoat, and sending you out to that 
school? But why not? It concerns one of the things you love 
most; it's designed to promote the highest welfare of that child 
for whom you'd gladly give your life. But do you go? 

Suppose you are a teacher. It's 4.30 o'clock in the afternoon. 
You are just beginning to breathe naturally once more and you 
happen to remember the notice which the principal had sent 
around the day before, saying that on that evening the Reverend 
So-and-So, not only a prominent clergyman but the father of a 
conspicuously well-behaved family, would address the Home and 
School Association upon "Does a Child Need Discipline or 
Sympathy?" Now that is a matter upon which you need to 
have all the wisdom that is extant. It's necessary to have it for 
the preservation of order in your class room and for the display 
of that proficiency which brings promotion. And yet does the 
prospect of that meeting fill you with thrills of enthusiasm ; does 
it quicken your progress homeward arid send you out again on 
the wings of expectation? 

On the other hand, what would have been the probable effect 
upon that father and that teacher if an announcement worded 
as follows had come to them? "At the meeting of the Parents' 
Association on Friday evening Dr. Frank Lively of the County 
Historical Society will give a lantern talk on ' Local Landmarks 
and their Romantic Associations.' The Ladies of the Fort- 
nightly Musical Club, whose assistance last year is so pleasantly 



remembered, will be present and favor us with several vocal 
selections. During the social period following the stated program 
there will be refreshments and informal dancing. You may 
already have many acquaintances in the neighborhood, but there 
are still some charming people whom you ought to know and who 
would like to know you. Making their acquaintance might result 
in new and treasured friendships. The schoolhouse belongs to 
the people of the neighborhood and it can be used to enrich their 
life as well as that of their children." 

If the interests of the child form the guiding principle for the 
promoters of a home and school association it is inevitable that 
the program arranged by them will be filled with talks and lectures 
that are prepared especially for, and aimed directly at, parents 
and teachers; and only geniuses, capable of the highest platform 
art, can prevent such deliverances from smacking of the righteous- 
making motive. The irresistible tendency of speakers selected 
from that viewpoint is to point out shortcomings, the higher 
parental duties, neglected professional obligations and a multitude 
of ways in which fathers, mothers and teachers can better them- 
selves in their relationship to the child. My point is not that 
such talks would not be good for the hearers. Their improvement 
in precisely these respects is most essential to the progress of the 
race. But however improving a talk may be potentially, it does 
not improve people actually if they do not come to hear it. The 
improving talk is the wrong kind of bait to use if you wish to 
catch fish after sundown. 

Social affairs, occasions that amuse, exercises that afford 
recreation, doings which take the mind off from the troubles of 
the day and strengthen both it and the body for the morrow — 
these are the things which, in the margin of the day, engage the 
interest of the majority of ordinary human beings. Teachers 
are not simply implements for tilling the soil of the child's mind. 
They are people of flesh and blood, of warm human sympathies, 
and if parents meet them upon the ground of common human 
interests, of like capacities for enjoyment, they will not only 
know them better but they will find them more interesting. 
Likewise fathers and even mothers prefer to be known as some- 
bodies other than the mere progenitors of their children. 

The keynote, the prime requisite, of every occasion held by a 
home and school association should be enjoyableness — and this 
quality should be sought for with all the skill of a commercial 



8 

amusement provider or the ability of a hostess in the diplomatic 
set. 

What, now, are the means of recreation, of sociability, to be had 
in a schoolhouse? Especially — I fancy someone is asking — how 
can a group of grown-ups have good times in a building which 
has neither auditorium nor gymnasium, nothing but a lot of class 
rooms filled with fixed, uncomfortable children's seats? 

It is a difficult situation, but the successful work of the Home 
and School League in Philadelphia and of similar associations in 
other cities where the older type of elementary school building 
still prevails shows that it can be met. Iti such schools as these 
the main reliance has to be placed upon the kindergarten rooms 
and the eighth grade rooms. The difficulty about chairs in the 
case of the former can be solved, when the school board will not 
furnish them, by raising money through an entertainment in 
some school that has an assembly room or by soliciting private 
contributions. 

The varied sources of enjoyment which are found in the average 
city neighborhood and which can be drawn from by almost any 
society of parents and teachers are well illustrated in a list of 
sociable occasions taken from the annual report of the Boston 
Home and School Association. 



Entertainments held by Boston Associations 

A Chorus of Civil War Veterans sang Camp Fire Songs 

An Illustrated Lecture on "Lincoln" 

An Apple Lecture, with apples for refreshments 

A Travel Talk, illustrated by lantern slides 

The High School Orchestra assisted with selections 

A Musical Entertainment by Pupils, including Piano and Violin 
Solos 

A Double Quartette from the School gave several numbers 

Local talent — musicians, elocutionists, banjoists — helped fre- 
quently 

A Playlet by the Children entitled "The Birds' Christmas Carol" 

An Exhibition of Folk Dancing by Pupils 

An Apron and Necktie Party (Dancing) 

The reports of the individual associations frequently tell of 
"tea and cakes served at all meetings," while one in particular 
gives a suggestive account of how the business side of hospitality 
is managed. "We have had coffee at most of the meetings, sold 



As the Author receives no royalties and the Department of 
Child Hygiene makes no profit on the sale of this book we do 
not hesitate to use this method to help put copies into the 
hands of persons who we think ought to read it. 



Order Form 



19 



Charities Publication Committee 
105 East aand Street, 

New York City, N. Y. 

Gentlemen : 

Enclosed with this find $ for which please 

send me copies of ^he Wider Use of the School 

Plants by Clarence Arthur Perry ^ at I1.25 each, postpaid. 



Name 



Street, Number 



City, State 



Send Check, Money Order, or 2-cent Stamps. 



With a year's subscription to The Survey, ^2.75 
(^Regular price for the two, $j.2^) 



(over) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I THE WIDER USE 

II EVENING SCHOOLS 

III EVENING SCHOOLS ABROAD 

IV THE PROMOTION OF ATTENDANCE AT EVENING SCHOOLS 
V VACATION SCHOOLS 

VI SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS 

VII PUBLIC LECTURES AND ENTERTAINMENTS 

VIII EVENING RECREATION CENTERS 

IX SOCIAL CENTERS 

X ORGANIZED ATHLETICS, GAMES AND FOLK DANCING 

XI MEETINGS IN SCHOOL HOUSES 

XII SOCIAL BETTERMENT THROUGH WIDER USE 



us at a reduction by a store-keeper ; cream supplied at a reduction 
by another member; sometimes paper napkins are given us, with 
the name of the firm printed on. We make the coffee ourselves 
on a gas stove at the school, and we wash the dishes ourselves. 
Refreshments at an average cost $1.50 a meeting. We have 
bought one hundred cups and saucers, $10.00; 144 spoons (at 
wholesale), $4.00; plates, 40 cents; pitchers, 70 cents; and 
before the next meeting shall have a coffee boiler. We have had 
fruit punch once." 

Nearly all public schools, high schools especially, have musical 
organizations and talented pupils who would be stimulated 
and given a desirable kind of practice by assisting at home and 
school meetings. Likewise there are in every neighborhood 
accomplished musicians, reciters and travellers, who, if tactfully 
approached, will gladly give their services for the community's 
benefit. Inexpensive resources for entertaining are abundant on 
every hand and it requires only the right kind of organization 
to make them available for the enjoyment of the many. 

One of the best vehicles of enjoyment which can be utilized 
in almost any kindergarten room and by any group of parents 
and teachers is social dancing. As a physical exercise for adults 
of sedentary habits there is none better. It not only makes the 
arteries more elastic, stimulates digestion and strengthens the 
lungs, but it frees the mind of worry and brings cheer into the 
soul. For eight years now in Providence, Rhode Island, a group 
of portly bankers, elderly merchants, and busy professional men 
have been meeting weekly and taking lessons from an expert in 
fancy dancing. The Highland Fling is their favorite dance. It 
must be beneficial to them or they would not keep it up. Indeed 
it would be difficult to find a group of men and women so old, 
so dignified or so prominent in the world's affairs that they would 
not be benefited by participation now and then in the good old 
rollicking Virginia Reel. There is also probably no way in which 
a superintendent of schools could more quickly and inexpensively 
energize his corps of teachers than by arranging for them and 
the people of the neighborhood a series of weekly dances in the 
schoolhouses. Many people find more real fun in the frequent 
and informal affairs than they do in the set dances, while several 
lively waltzes and two-steps make an excellent finale for any sort 
of a home and school meeting. 

Another enjoyable general exercise which mixes well in any 



lO 

program is group singing — congregational singing it is sometimes 
called. This is one of the most successful features of the general 
evenings in the Rochester social centers. The songs are thrown 
on a screen by a lantern and the audience sings them with such 
a will and vim that the Rev. Samuel M. Crothers of Cambridge, 
the "gentle" essayist, on the occasion of a visit said he had not 
heard such singing since the Civil War days. "You people," 
said he, "have done a great thing. You have found a substitute 
for the only good thing about war, so that war is no longer 
necessary. The one justification of war is that it makes people 
realize that they have a common bond, a common interest — and 
they express that feeling in songs." 

Suppose now that we have an association formed on the basis 
of simple enjoyment; suppose that it successfully provides 
recreation and amusement for its members — what results will 
inevitably follow? In the first place its occasions will have large 
attendances; it will be a strong association. The effects of co- 
operation will react beneficially upon the mem.bers; they will 
become more truly social in their interests. It is inevitable that 
under such circumstances the parents and teachers will become 
sympathetically acquainted. The two groups will spontaneously 
talk about children. The parents will unwittingly absorb a 
knowledge of class-room difficulties and the teachers will pick 
up scraps of information about their pupils' home surroundings. 
The fathers will see the kind of equipment the school has and 
become more intelligent supporters of the superintendent's plans 
for improving it. These are just a few of the things which will 
happen from the very nature of the case in an association which 
is built on the plan of furnishing, primarily, enjoyment. 

But the meetings, the occasions of the organization, would fail 
of giving the highest enjoyment if they did not lead somewhere. 
A novel may have the most enthralling interest; its characters 
may be drawn with surpassing skill ; its plot may be full of the 
most tragic situations; but if its perusal does not leave us with 
a clearer insight into the mystery of life, does not yield us a 
sharpened sense of our rights and obligations, it fails to give the 
highest pleasure. A play may afford two hours of bubbling 
enjoyment, or an equal period of the most heart-rending tragedy, 
but if it does not send us out of the theatre with a quickened 
conscience and an energized will it fails to arouse in us the fullest 
enthusiasm. 



II 

And so with a home and school association, — its meetings may 
be landmarks of happiness in our dreary lives, but unless they 
at the same time make us feel that we are getting somewhere, 
that we are accomplishing something more than just having good 
times, then they will fail — not only to make us good, but to 
exhaust their capacity for making us happy. 

There are at the present time several movements which home 
and school associations are promoting and in connection with 
which much remains still to be accomplished. These are the 
matters of public recreation, the institution of a sane but enjoyable 
and significant manner of celebrating our holidays, medical school 
inspection and school hygiene, of which open-air schools form 
an important branch. While all these subjects center upon the 
child they are so objective and scientific in character, so largely 
matters of community administration rather than individual 
obligation that they interest and do not repel. Being more or 
less new to the teacher as well as to the parent, neither has the 
advantage of superior knowledge and both can approach them 
upon the terms of equality. They are admirably adapted as 
subjects of discussion or promotion in connection with the regular 
social and recreative work of an association, and occupation with 
them will furnish the serious element that must be included in its 
activities if they are to afford the most satisfying enjoyment. 

One cannot peruse the reports of the larger federations of 
parent-teacher associations without being amazed at the number 
of important things they accomplish. The Philadelphia Home 
and School League, which is made up of some fifty branch asso- 
ciations and twenty-six affiliated organizations, supported and 
ran during the winter of 1909-10 eleven social centers. It runs 
a bureau of speakers and entertainers; has a school luncheon 
department which is serving daily luncheons in four schools; 
holds two annual conferences; and constantly throughout the 
year it brings the grown-ups and the young people together in 
the schoolhouses in enjoyable and profitable ways. Through the 
efforts of the various branch associations the schools are receiving 
new pianos, pictures, domestic science outfits, playground 
apparatus and many other .valuable pieces of equipment. At the 
same time a stream of information, advice and inspiration is 
flowing into the homes which enables them to co-operate more 
efficiently with the schools in the upbringing of children. 

The Boston Home and School Association, to which reference 



• 12 

has been made, not only furnishes large numbers of people with 
most enjoyable social occasions, but it undertakes serious socio- 
logical inquiries and performs other services of the greatest 
importance to the community. 

For example, its committee on theatres and amusements 
investigated the manner in which some' 3300 school children 
spent their evenings. The results, which were published, were 
most significant and valuable to parents. Its hygiene committee 
has exerted a strong influence upon the school officials to have 
the school windows kept clean, thus helping to conserve the 
eyesight of the pupils. The same committee has also performed 
some very successful experimentation with penny lunches for 
school children. They are now (iqio-i i) working in some twelve 
schools, in each of which about 200 children are given penny 
luncheons at the morning recess. Another one of its committees, 
at the request of the city school board, prepared an elaborate 
scheme for the wider use of school buildings. These are only a 
few of the ways in which the Boston association is enriching the 
social and intellectual life of the whole community. 

In Auburn, New York, there is a federation of parent-teacher 
associations which carries on each summer an extensive play- 
ground work and which recently waged a successful campaign for 
the addition of a probation officer to the staff of municipal officials. 
In Houston, Texas, there is a most energetic group of mothers' 
clubs and parent-teacher societies. They number only seventeen, 
but in two years after starting they raised over $21,000. This 
money was expended in serving hygienic lunches, equipping school 
kitchens, purchasing pianos, and providing numberless other 
things that were needed in school work but which could not 
immediately be secured from the city. 

One of the chief advantages of having an association on a 
recreative basis and of having as features of its work the promo- 
tion of the objective movements which have been mentioned is 
that both of these things can be taken care of by people outside 
of, but working in co-operation with, the school system. The 
daily duties of the teachers are all they can perform and perform 
well, and the association, in affording them recreative occasions 
instead of opportunities for a lot of arduous work, is only perform- 
ing a part of its mission and, incidentally, promoting efficient 
class-room work. 

Behind every successful organization in the industrial or com- 



13 

mercial world there is some one personality of conspicuous force 
and ability. And so in starting a parent-teacher association the 
principal, or whoever takes the initiative, might well seek first 
for an experienced leader. The chief requisites are leisure, 
organizing skill, executive ability and a capacity for hard work. 
In making the proposal there should be pointed out not only the 
good such a person could accomplish but the power that would 
be wielded and the social rewards that would ensue. The latter 
may not seem a high motive, but it is one of the strongest 
forces back of the large achievements in politics and business, 
and there is no adequate reason why it should not be used in 
pushing a home and school association. 

To be most efficient a meeting of parents and teachers — and 
the provision of a series of these constitutes the chief business of 
an association — should have the principal qualities of a work of 
art. It should afford delight to the senses in ways that also 
satisfy the needs of the soul. 

Suggestions for Starting an Association 

Organizers of parent-teacher associations can obtain model 
constitutions and by-laws, as well as other assistance, by address- 
ing the National Congress of Mothers (806 Loan and Trust 
Building, Washington, D. C). Home and School (Christopher 
Sower & Company, Philadelphia), an attractive little volume by 
Mrs. Mary Van Meter Grice, the president of the Philadelphia 
League, contai-ns many suggestions that would be helpful in 
starting this work. Useful information will also be found in the 
Wider Use of the School Plant (described on a following page). 
Chapter XI of which is largely devoted to the doings of these 
and similar organizations. 



Some of the Pamphlets that can be Furnished 

by the Department of Child Hygiene of 

the Russell Sage Foundation 

400 Metropolitan Tower, N^w York City 



Athletics 

50. Inter-High School Athletics. Earl Cline. 

58. The Functions of College Athletics. Chancellor James R. 

Day. 
63. The Law of Amateurism. Clark W. Hetherington, 

69. History of the Administration of Inter-Collegiate Athletics 

IN the United States. D. A. Sargent, M.D. 
72. Athletics in the Public Schools. Lee F. Hanmer. 

Festivals and Celebrations 

53. May Day Celebrations. Miss Elizabeth Burchenal. 

60. A Sane and Patriotic Fourth. Mrs. Isaac L. Rice. 

68. Celebrating Independence Day. August H. Brunner. 

70. Independence Day Celebrations. Gulick, Orr, Gardner and 

Hanmer. 

Use of School Buildings 

51. The Wider Use of the School Plant. Clarence A. Perry. 

52. Public Lectures in School Buildings. Clarence A. Perry. 
56. Vacation Schools. Clarence A. Perry. 

83. The Community Used Schoolhouse. Clarence A. Perry. 
85. Evening Recreation Centers. Clarence A. Perry. 

Play and Playgrounds 

1. Games Every Boy and Girl Should Know. George E. Johnson. 

2. Landscape Gardening for Playgrounds. Charles Mulford Rob- 

inson. 

18. Why We Want Playgrounds. Governor Charles E. Hughes. 

19. Play and Playgrounds. Joseph Lee. 
27. New Jersey Playground Law. 

49. Playground Construction. Lorna H. Leland. 

75. School Gardens. Mrs. A. L. Livermore. 

Recreation 

67. Popular Recreation and Public Morality. Luther H. Gulick, 
M.D. 

76. Exercise and Rest. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 

84. The Exploitation of Pleasure (A Study of Commercial Re- 

cre.\tion). Michael M. Davis, Jr., Ph.D. 



Department of Child Hygiene 
Russell Sa^e Foundation Publications 



MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 

BY LUTHER HALSEY GULICK. M.D. 

DIRECTOR OF PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOLS; AND 

LEONARD p. AYRES, A.M.. Ph.D. 

FORMERLY GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS FOR PORTO RICO 

"Lucidly exhaustive and admirably arranged." — The Nation. 

"A notable contribution both to medicine and to school administration." — 
Erie Dispatch. 

"An important contribution to the cause of Education." — Journal of Edu- 
cation. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.00 

LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS 

A Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems 
BY LEONARD P. AYRES. A.M.. Ph.D. 

FORMERLY GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS FOR PORTO RICO; CO-AUTHOR 
OF MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS, AUTHOR OF OPEN AIR SCHOOLS. 

"Mr. Ayres has given life to his figures and character to his diagrams." — 
American Industries. 

"Such a book, at once readable and scholarly, scientific and popular, critical 
and constructive, is typical of the best in educational literature." — The Indepen- 
dent. 

"It is the most important specific study of school conditions that has been 
made by any one." — Journal of Education. 
Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1 .50. In lots of six, $1 .00 each, postpaid 

THE WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL 
PLANT 

BY CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY 

DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

" The book bristles with interesting information and saUent quotations." — 
The Chautauquan. 

" It is full of definite ideas as to programme and schedules of expense in- 
volved." — The Psychological Clinic. 

" It is a stirring story." — Literary Digest. 

"An able delineation of one effective means of social advance." — Annals of 
American Academy of Political and Social Science. 

Price, postpaid, $1.25 

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 

105 East 22d Street, New York City, N. Y. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION Pf/. _0 0_1A ^05 



nil' -J 

140 5 4 



Wider Use of the School 



s-i Plant a===:^ 

By Clarence Arthur Perry Illustrated Price Postpaid $1.25 

Public Money Pays for our costly, hand- 
some, well equipped school buildings. To get 
the best results from this investment they must 
be kept open longer than seven hours a day. 
In many cities the day instruction is now sup- 
plemented by other activities which yield large 
dividends in social and civic service. 

The Community Owns the Schoolhouse. 
It is the natural neighborhood center, day and 
evening, the year round. It can be used eft'ec- 
tively for a surprising number and variety of 
gatherings. It can serve the whole neighbor- 
hood and bring back to the taxpayers who paid 
for it a rich return in recreation, education and 
good citizenship. 

The Department of Child Hygiene of 
the Russell Sage Foundation commissioned 
Mr. Perry to do this work. He has brought 
together the hard-won experience of many cities 
which have opened their schools to the people. He gives a practical outline of organi- 
zation, cost and administration of "wider use." The introduction is by Dr. Luther H. 
Gulick. 

School Extension of this Sort was given a special session at the last meeting of 
the National Municipal League and has been widely discussed by Public Education 
Associations, Parent and Teacher Associations, Settlements and other organizations. 
Mr. Perry's book furnishes just the information needed to give the movement impetus. 
The chapter titles tell the story : 



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T/ie Community- Used Schoolhouse 



The Wider Use 

Evening Schools 

Evening Schools Abroad 

Promotion of Attendance at Evening Schools 

Vacation Schools 

School Playgrounds 



Public Lectures and Entertainments 

Evening Recreation Centers 

Social Centers 

Organized Athletics, Games and Folk Dancing 

Meetings in School Houses 

Social Betterment Through Wider Use 



i2mo. 42^ Pages 5/ Illustrations Price Postpaid, $1.25 

Send Check, Money Order or two-cent Stamps to 

Charities Publication Committee 

Publishers for the Russell Sage Foundation 
105 East 22d Street New York 



